


All-In

by Rocketbear



Category: Eyeshield 21
Genre: F/M, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 11:47:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22969480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rocketbear/pseuds/Rocketbear
Summary: Hiruma Youichi loves to gamble, but Anezaki Mamori loves to surprise him.
Relationships: Anezaki Mamori/Hiruma Youichi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 71





	All-In

Hiruma Youichi loves to gamble.

He loves the mental manipulation of calculating his chances, stretching himself to take every factor into account and update his margins in real time. He loves weighing the risks and benefits, and the thrill of waiting for the shoe to drop to see if he's balanced them right. He loves to bluff and bluff and bluff, to the point that he can tell someone a perfect truth that should put him at a disadvantage, and still come out on top through the strength of his carefully-cultivated chaos and its impact on his opponents. He loves dancing on the razor's edge of a 1% chance of victory, and seeing how far he can push things to gain just one more percent, just two, just five, until the situation flips and he's actually won. He even loves a sure bet, for the freedom it grants him to try things that are utterly new.

When he recruits the fucking shrimp to be the cornerstone of the Devil Bats, the lynchpin that his entire plan for getting to the Christmas Bowl depends on, he doesn't bet on Anezaki Mamori.

He knows that there's steel under that warm and soft exterior, of course; he'd already run up against it all throughout first year whenever one of his movements had made it onto her radar and been met by fiery eyes, flared nostrils and a sharp voice. But in the moment, he bets too heavily on the idea that she actually enjoys the game as much as he does-- that she _likes_ having an outlet for that steel in her spine, likes having someone to actually challenge that mind of hers, likes being able to flex her cunning outside the no-stakes docility of the classroom. And he knows he's not wrong about that, exactly. He can see it in the way she leans in with her hands on her hips when they argue, and the way her eyes go dark with thought while she's sorting through the data to find the perfect thing to undercut him, and the little self-satisfied smile that tugs at her lips when she finds it. He knows she likes the game.

But it turns out the fucking shrimp isn't a valid piece in the game for her. She tells Hiruma without hesitation that she'll dismantle the whole thing to protect him: no more game, no more Devil Bats, and no more Christmas Bowl. She wins the bet he's made against her so thoroughly that he doesn't even have a play he can try to resist with, and she doesn't smile.

It's the shrimp that saves the day then, and the part of Hiruma that's constantly playing the odds and searching for new plays immediately lands on a new series of bets: first, that if the shrimp joins the team, Anezaki will too. And second, that if she does join, she'll be an asset.

He wins on both accounts, and after that, she becomes one of his favorite things to bet on.

♠️♥️♦️♣️

He doesn't win all of them, of course. He bets on her reasons for joining as manager being purely personal instead of betting on her perfectionism, and she aces every football question he throws at her until he has to abandon the quiz game and save his last question for one he can win. Much later, when they've settled back into the comfort of the game and the harsh edges of their uneasy alliance have smoothed out as she comes to trust him more with her shrimp, she actually makes the bet first: he scoffs at her for tidying up the clubhouse the day after a game when no one else will even bother to show, and she insists that they will. It turns out that she's right, the rest of the team filtering in at the usual practice time despite their bruises and sore muscles.

He tosses a canned drink to her over his shoulder as her prize, and it's not his ego that keeps his eyes carefully trained on his laptop to avoid catching a glimpse of her bright eyes and the pleased smile that he knows she's wearing.

Well. That could end up being a problem. He bets that it won't, but it's not a sure thing.

But he does win plenty of the bets he makes with Anezaki Mamori at their center. He bets, when the fucking shrimp finally finds the guts to reveal that he's been dodging Mamori-neechan's protection the whole time, that she'll pull herself together in time to join them on the bench. It'll be a definite blow to her, he knows, but he also knows that she's strong enough to take it, and he cackles as she takes to the field under his custom introduction.

She's still a protector at heart, though, that steel always coming out on the behalf of someone else rather than herself. Later, she sits next to him as he lays on a cot in a dim room, fire and electricity coursing through his arm. He bets that even perfect Anezaki will let herself lie if it's to protect someone-- even if that someone is him-- and grits his teeth as he asks a question to prove himself right.

He doesn't bet that she'll forgive him, but he hopes that she will. And when she does, his relief isn't only because he knows that the Devil Bats will need her as a supporting pillar for their upcoming games. So that's another lost bet: it's become a problem after all. But Hiruma thrives on high stakes, so he just files the information away for when he can formulate a plan of attack.

♠️♥️♦️♣️

It's after the Youth World Cup, after Team Japan nearly gets themselves kicked out of their hotel for the party they throw to blow off the stress of competing on an international stage, that he learns he was wrong not to bet that she'd act first. Everyone starts to stagger sleepily off to their rooms, exhausted after the game against the US and the party both, and she passes the managers' room as she follows him to his, bickering with him about how to handle packing the team's luggage for the flight home tomorrow.

He unlocks the door, and she moves smoothly past him into the room as he teases her.

"We won't have to worry about getting everything packed if you can pack luggage like you packed away creampuffs at the party, fucking manager," he says, and she spins to face him, stepping close in an affronted challenge.

"I didn't have that many!" She protests, cheeks pink. There are still crumbs by the corner of her mouth,and he presses a thumb there.

Her flush deepens, but she doesn't move away, instead narrowing her eyes as if to cement that a gauntlet had been thrown.

So, he says, "Bet I can guess how many you ate."

She tips her chin up and says, "Prove it."

He kisses her.

She squawks when he's right.

♠️♥️♦️♣️

He gets pretty good at making bets on her after that. When she tells him that Saikyoudai is her number one choice for university because it has the degree plans that best suit her hopes of double-majoring in child development and education, he ditches his other options and goes all-in on his own application. She'll get in, he knows, and she does. The football team isn't sterling-- though the big fucking baldy is there, and that's a mark in its favor-- but he's had experience with building a team from the ground up. He can make it work.

Still, though, on occasion she still surprises him. When she gets her own apartment, he finds himself in the rare position of blinking dumbly as she nonchalantly presses a key into his hand. In the bedroom, there's a queen-size bed and a double dresser, and he grins with the specific delight that comes from being outplayed.

But he's Hiruma Youichi, and she's Anezaki Mamori-- for now-- and he still has tricks up his own sleeve. Later, he watches her across the dinner table, tracing the shape of the ring in his pocket, and grins in anticipation.

Yeah, he loves gambling-- but there's nothing wrong with a sure bet.

**Author's Note:**

> whoops I was possessed by a demon and banged this out in one go instead of working on any of my WIPs and then collapsed without editing so SORRY ABOUT ANY TYPOS THAT I'LL DEF HAVE TO FIX IN THE MORNING


End file.
